Virus Increase - which changes caused this?

[palmpal]

Hello,

Previously I never had much of a problem with getting viruses sent to me via email. Recently there have been several changes to my setup and since then I've had a total of 17 viruses sent in the last two weeks. I suspect that the changes to my setup may be allowing these viruses to get through. Symantec is catching them in my email system but I still wanted opinions about which of my changes could have caused this to happen: 1) I changed my web host to a very well known company (Apache server) that offered a better deal (maybe there is a setting that I haven't turned on?) 2) I also added my website to a TopSites List, and 3) I added the button for the TopSites List to all of my web pages.

Thanks for any help!

[palmpal]

Hello,

I'm bringing this back to the top for possible feedback. I'm like to contact my web host today or if needed, delete all the links to the top sites list in case this is causing my increase in viruses received via email.

Thanks!

[MatthewHSE]

I wouldn't think your host or server setup could cause an increase in spam. Unless, of course, your previous host was automatically deleting certain messages without your knowledge. I, for one, would be very displeased if my host did that.

[Mr Bo Jangles]

not sure about virus increase, but the amount of e-mail spam that is pouring in (albeit detected) seems to be getting astronomical - my spam received level is certainly not going down! We need some huge fines to be levied on these people and advertised to scare some of these operators.

[vkaryl]

I don't have any experience of topsites, so I haven't any idea if that could cause it or not. Contrary to others' perceptions, I've seen a major DECREASE in spam emails, both with and without virus attachments, due to implementation of some spam-catchers at server-level by my hosting company.

However, I didn't KNOW about some of the spam stuff my host provided, until I mailed her about something else and spam emails came up in the ensuing discussion. You might just contact your tech support folks to ask, for instance, if they have an auto-blackhole setting (not a good idea), or if there are things you can activate through your cPanel that you might not be aware of.

[jollymcfats]

Do you send email from your domain? For us, the inbound virus level is directly tied to the level of outbound mail. Each email we send that lands on an infected PC seems to generate anywhere from 2 to 6 viruses sent back to us.

The viruses seem to simply scrape all the email addresses out of the user's inbox.